Inogen expanding in Ohio; company gets international product approval
Inogen, a portable oxygen concentrator company headquartered in Goleta, announced plans June 2 to open a new facility near Cleveland, Ohio to support its direct-to-consumer product line.
The company also plans to expand its sales force through recruitment in the northeastern part of the state. It currently has 177 sales employees between its Goleta and Richardson, Texas operations.
“We are planning on adding additional headcount of approximately 240 people in the Cleveland area location over the next three years,” including customer support and services personnel, President and CEO Scott Wilkinson said in a news release.
Staffing in the Eastern time zone will help support current customers, and the company will receive up to $1.9 million in tax benefits from state and local governments over the next three years, according to its current projections.
“The tax benefits and the strong market for skilled labor in the area were the primary lures of Cleveland, Ohio for the site of this expansion when compared to a dozen or so other U.S. cities under consideration,” said Ali Bauerlein, co-founder and chief financial officer.
The facility is expected to be operational in the second half of 2017, and operations at its other facilities will remain unchanged.
The company also received approval June 1 to sell its Inogen One G4 product internationally.
The product, which weighs around 2.8 pounds and was released in the U.S. in May 2016, now represents around half of the company’s direct-to-consumer sales.
“The Inogen One G4 product provides a competitive advantage for us as we believe it produces more oxygen per pound of weight than any other portable oxygen concentrator,” Wilkinson said.
Receiving an EC Certificate allows the company to sell the concentrator in select countries where it has already achieved regulatory clearance. The company has distribution agreements in several European and Latin American countries, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Kuwait, but some countries like Italy, Spain, France and Portugal require additional registrations before the product can be sold.
Shares for the company rose 2.1 percent after the announcement to $91.49 as of 10:35 a.m. June 2. The stock remains up more than 36 percent year-to-date.
• Contact Marissa Nall at [email protected].
